Operational Culture for the Warfighter: Principles and Applications

by Barak A. Salmoni, Paula Holmes-Eber, U.S. Marine Corps (Editor)

Includes a foreword by General James N. N. Mattis, USMC. A comprehensive textbook, reference, and planning tool. Provides operationally relevant cultural teaching, training, and analysis. Links social science paradigms to the needs of Marines using an applied anthropology approach. Links fundamental features of culture to the challenges of military operations in different cultures around the globe.

344 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2009

Reviews

[Brian Thorson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a practical explanation of the importance of cultural context and understanding for military application. It provides the reader with numerous tools to assess, understand, and integrate culture into the planning and operations process.

It is the most practical and useful read on culture for the military I have encountered.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for the course I'm currently in, Red Team Member. It's an outstanding application of the elements of culture to the operational environment. It goes into some depth on the 13 critical variables of the joint operational environment, and shows how these variables feed into politics, social interactions, physical environment, military operations, information operations, economics and infrastructure. It also has several chapters on practical application, and is intended to be used in the area of operations. The only minus is that it uses doctrinal language that is no longer current, ie. kinetic and non-kinetic are no longer part of the doctrinal lexicon, and have been replaced with lethal and non-lethal.

[Dave Beeman]

What you need to know about an Area of Operations from the cultural point of view. Keys in on five area's - physical environment, the economy of a culture, social structure, political structure, and belief systems. Provides three excellent case studies that shows how the information is put together to produce a useful product.
While the title includes "for the warfighter" and was written for U.S. Marines 99% of the contents of this book could be used by any business looking to expand it's markets into foreign areas and would help them understand the cultural environment they are walking into.